Transport Revolution

Barthe Transport Revolution

Myriam

4è7

Until late in the 1700’s, in both Europe and America, most roads were either rough tracks created by hoof and wheel or mere paths blazed through the wilderness. People traveled by horseback or on foot between towns. During cold or wet seasons, traffic was especially difficult or impossible. One of the problem was that each parish had to mend its own roads. Most people in the parish had to work 4 or 6 days on the roads each year, or pay money instead. Not surprisingly, they disliked this and skirted the work.

During the eighteenth century, a new system developed. Groups of men agreed to keep a stretch of road in good repair if they could charge a fee to every one who used the roads. They put barriers called turnpikes across the road to stop travelers until they had pay the toll. Most of the early toll- bars had pikes on them, and it was from these that the roads got their name. The price of the toll depended on the length of the road and the nature of the traffic (see source 1).

Between 1790 and 1830, the network of Turnpike roads spread all over the kingdom. In that time, a lot of Turnpike Acts were passed. There were parallel improvements in road vehicles, wagons and carts replaced gradually packhorses, farm- carts and horses for the carriage of goods. Great advances were made in stage- coach travel. Coaches in the mid eighteen century were heavily built and without proper springs, which made them slow, uncomfortable and very expensive. But by the turn of the nineteenth century, they had improved to such an extant that it was faster to send mail by coach than by postboy or horseback. These advances were taken by private coach companies, which competed with each other to provide the fastest, most comfortable service (see source 2).

The fast running mail and stage- coaches needed better roads. In the early 1800s, three great roadbuilders began to provide them.

One of the most remarkable was John Metcalfe from Knaresborough in Yorkshire (even though he was blind, he led a very active life). He was nearly fifty years old when he constructed his first Turnpike road (1765) and in the next twenty seven years, he supervised the construction of nearly 300 kilometers of Turnpikes (mostly in Yorkshire and Lancashire). He paid special attention to the bed of the road and where the soil was soft, he laided ...

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The fast running mail and stage- coaches needed better roads. In the early 1800s, three great roadbuilders began to provide them.

Thomas Telford was born in Westerkirk, Dumfries, Scotland, in 1757, the son of a poor Scottish shepherd. He apprenticed for a time to a stonemason, but then trained as a surveyor, before moving to London in 1792 in search of work. He found employment working on Somerset House in the capitol, but later moved to Portsmouth to work on the docks.

A patron from Dumfries got him the post of Surveyor of Public Works for the County of Shropshire. In this capacity he was responsible for the construction of the Ellesmere Canal in 1793, and the Severn Suspension Bridge at Montford (1790). This bridge was an engineering marvel, and it helped make his reputation as one of the greatest civil engineers in Britain.

His success led to a government appointment to survey the roads in rural Scotland as part of a major transportation improvement scheme. His survey results were accepted and Telford was asked to oversee the construction of some 1,000 miles ( or 1,600 kilometers) of roads and 120 bridges ; a job which took him over 20 years to complete.

Telford’s roads were build on solid foundation . Stones were laid carrefully by hand, smaller broken stones were then put on so that the whole foundation was packed solid. On top, came further layers of small broken stones and sometimes a layer of gravel on top was added.

The overall effect of his work was to revolutionize trade and travel north of the border and quicken communications between England and Scotland.

Thomas Telford died on September 2, 1834 and is buried in the nave of Westminster Abbey, London (see source 4 and 5).

The third roadbuilder (but not the least, he is the best known) is John Macadam. Macadam had no special training, roads were just his hobby for many years. It was not until 1815, when he was made Surveyor of the Bristol Turnpike Trust that he began to gain a nationwide reputation. His methods were popular for several reasons. Firstly, because they were ideal for carrying out low- cost improvements to old roads instead of building new ones. This is why Macadam’s method of making and repairing roads was consulted by turnpike trusts. He showed that if the subsoil was well drained and the surface of the road slightly raised, it would carry heavy traffic all the year round without the need for costly foundations. His roads were curved from the center to the edges. On top of the hearth Macadam laid three layers of small broken stones. In the bottom two layers, the stones had to be of about the same size and weigh no more than six ounces. The top layer sometimes had smaller stones. The coach wheels packed these stones down tight and broke off a fine grit which bound the surface together. After a while water would run off the surface and not wet the soil underneath (see source 6). He also realized that improvements would have a greater effects if groups of trusts amalgamated to produce long, continuous sections of good road. He succeeded in persuading Parliament to consolidate all the Turnpikes in the London area under one Metropolitan Turnpike Trust (1825) to which he was appointed Surveyor General.

His methods are still nowadays used.

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